Building Bridges
by Qwertyquail
Summary: With the war over and life returning back to normal, Falfrea must now face the task of living a regular life with his psychopathic alter-ego. Will his sanity snap or will he overcome his dark side? Only time will tell.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N. Right, new story means I have to do the copyright thing again. I know you all know it off by heart by now but it has to be done. I'm doing it in the prologue because it's technically the first chapter. My Little Pony is owned by and is copyrighted to Hasbro and was originally created by Lauren Faust. All music that I use (if any) is copyrighted to their respective owners and artists. This part of the story will be totally different from the previous one so don't say that I didn't warn you._

_Prologue_

The castle was empty. Its barren halls and bright rooms were silent, devoid of anything living. Nothing stirred up the dust in the early morning sun. Falfrea stood in the entrance hallway, in awe of how fast the place had been rebuilt. This had been rubble just a few days ago. It was the day after the trials and Falfrea was seeking an audience with Princess Luna, step in ruler of Equestria. He needed a favour done for him and Luna had the power and the connections to get it sorted. The pony walked slowly through the passages, his hooves making clips and clops and the occasional scrape of metal on stone. When Falfrea finally arrived at the great wooden door to the royal chambers he remembered the time just over five years ago when he had spent his last time in Equestria here and in the room he was about to enter. He plucked up his courage and knocked on the door. Luna herself greeted him in the doorway. "Princess! It is not safe to open the doors to visitors yourself!" Falfrea exclaimed.  
"Well, my dear Falfrea, I think you'll find that we are the only ponies in this building. One has no-pony to open the door for oneself." Luna replied.  
"Luna, I need your help for something," Falfrea said, "I need you to call all the citizens of Canterlot to the square for tomorrow at noon for a stand down of arms."  
"Why would one do that?"  
"Because I'm the one standing down." There was silence.  
"We should continue inside." They went into the state room and took residence within a pair of comfy-looking sofas. "I feel as if it is the right thing to do. I will lead with a short speech and after which I intend to release a total of two-hundred of my clones into the city. They are different from me and lack the digital psychopath residing in my brain. They all have no cutie mark for the cloning machine that Inmate 73 built was imperfect and made them physical clones but they aren't mentally the same. They'll have different thoughts and feelings to me and I hope for them to flourish." Luna thought for a moment before posing an important point. "What about those you… what's the word you use… assimilated? That's the one!"  
"They might take some time to fix but I will do what I can to help the ponies affected."  
"I think that I… will help you at this moment in time. Don't make me regret it."

The next day at noon, the entirety of Canterlot was standing in the square, wondering what to do other than to talk. They had been summoned for a public demonstration but they had not been told what was being demonstrated. After a short amount of time they heard a faint beating of hooves on cobbles before they all saw a sight that they hoped they wouldn't for a long time. Falfrea, still in his battle armour, trotting ahead of a force containing approximately two- hundred clones and twenty officers. Some ran, some stayed, rooted to the spot and some brave ones even took a step forward in preparation for an attack. Falfrea moved his forces to a position where all present cold see and hear. He started, "I am not here to attack you and I would wish that the ponies who have taken a defensive stance to lower their guard," few did, "You all have a perfect reason to be scared but I am not here to hurt you. I am here to stand down." A gasp escaped the courtyard and many of the ponies who had been hiding stepped out so they could hear him better. "I am here to allow these two-hundred ponies into your society. They are like babies; they only know what I have taught them. War. However, I am certain that with your loving care and guidance they will become just like you. They aren't all the same so don't treat them all the same. My next point was that I have twenty ponies here that may or may not belong to you. If you claim them and they confirm then you can have them back. I will be doing surgery on them to return them to their normal state. This may not happen but I will be my best. My final point, other than me giving up my armour, is that… well, you may have noticed that you are all devoid of money. I took it all. Some of it I melted down for stuff but most is safe in hiding. I have done the calculations. I have 200,000 bits for every pony In Equestria. Some of you may have had more and some may have had less but you are all equal now. Try to work your way to the top." Without any further ado, Falfrea concentrated and all his armour liquefied. He opened the port on his metal leg and let it drain into there. "This is the end of my reign of terror." He trotted off to make preparations.

He continued the process of dropping off a certain amount of clones in each settlement and giving them money. He talked to everypony in Equestria and he apologised, not hoping for forgiveness. He had conversations with destroyed families and destroyed ponies but never did he give up until he had gifted everypony their share of the money. He knocked on so many doors that he could only remember a select few. He knocked on the door of Spitfire. "Hello?" he called. The door opened inwards. She didn't jump or scream. She just looked at him. "Can I help you?" she quizzed.  
"Do you even know me?" Falfrea asked, looking confused.  
"Yes."  
"Do you know what I am here for?"  
"Yes."  
"Well then, you can have your money and… wait a minute. I think I remember something… argh! What was it? YES! I chopped your wing off." He looked pleased with himself before he realised what he had done. He had derailed the entire life and work of a Pegasus. "Oh… I am so sorry." He apologised. Falfrea looked glum until he realised, "I can fix it."  
"What?" Spitfire looked muddled.  
"Your wing, I can fix it." Falfrea was ecstatic.  
"Can you do two?"  
"Pardon?"  
"Can you fix two wings?" she turned to reveal the other side of her body. The wing that was broken had to be amputated, it was too damaged to fix. One side was a clean cut scar. The other was twisted and torn, an ugly scar that would never fade. "I think I can do two," Falfrea said slowly, "Yeah, I can!"  
"Do it." Falfrea walked over to Spitfire. He opened the port on his leg and allowed some of the nanomites to seep onto her skin. "They should replicate in the scar tissue, do their job and die, If you don't feed them that is, you won't like what they have to be fed with so I think it will be best if you travel with me until they are fixed. It'll take its time but they will be as good as new." Falfrea closed his eyes for a few seconds then opened them. "They should be able to reconstruct wings without any guidelines but if you have say… a feather lying around, it would reduce the chances of the wing being malformed." She went to get a feather that she had found. Falfrea was left waiting, wondering what to do. Spitfire returned with the feather she had promised. "Good, now if I feed it in here and…"  
"Falfrea, should it be itching?" Spitfire asked.  
"Yes, it should. The worst it should get is an uncomfortable burning sensation as they replicate in the nerve endings." Spitfire looked worried. "Don't worry about it, it'll be alright."  
"Where do I go?" she asked.  
"Where do you want to go?"  
"To your camp or whatever."  
"Oh, you leave Canterlot by the west exit, take the road for about a mile and you will see a small wood to your right. Go in there and the camp is easy to find. You shouldn't get challenged but if you do, say "Override code 121." Got it?"  
"Override code 121. Override code 121… Yep, I got it."  
"Now, if you would, go. I have a lot of ponies that I need to see today and you're just kind of slowing me down." Spitfire gave him a withering look before leaving, marching distinctly west, her back slightly reflecting the sun that rode high in the sky.

The next few houses Falfrea visited were uneventful, ponies took the money and he apologised and they closed the in his face. Not surprising really seeing as he was the most hated pony in all of Equestria, more so than Celestia even. One of the houses that day was productive for Falfrea though, one that would be crucial for his rehabilitation. He could tell that it would be an interesting conversation as soon as he stood in front of the door. There were a few noises coming from the inside but the predominant one was of a heavy bass and a fast drum loop. There was some shouting after about ten seconds and the music stopped. Falfrea took this opportunity to knock on the door. There were whispers and the sounds of a scuffle. "I've got it," a voice with sophistication and class whispered, clearly audible to Falfrea's advanced hearing. "No, you got the last one. It's my turn to open the door." A whisper that conveyed to confidence of a moderately famous pony.  
"The last time was when they ran off wasn't it?"  
"Well, yeah but I am sure about this one, I can do it."  
"I would normally encourage you but in this… I don't trust you."  
"Look, Octavia, I got this."  
"Alright then, you can open the door. Don't come crying to me if they run off."  
There was the sound of hooves on wood before the door opened. It didn't creak or open slowly, it just opened as one would expect a door to open. "Look, how hard can it be…" the white unicorn that stood in front of him trailed off, her purple glasses reflecting the sun behind Falfrea. Her mouth dropped open. "Octavia… I think that you might want to take this one."  
"Ahh, I was waiting for the moment when you would say that." The door opened wider and the two ponies could both be seen. "Vinyl, I think that you were correct on this one." Octavia just stood there, about half a meter behind Vinyl and looked as if she had seen a ghost. "You know, I'm rather enjoying this." Falfrea was smiling. The two other ponies were still lost for words. "Are your memories of me really that bad or are you just fearful for your lives?" Falfrea quizzed. Vinyl 'recovered' first. "Uhh…ahhh…chhhh…mlurrrre…chaggg…glurrrrrrrummmm."  
"Vinyl, that was rather rude."  
"You're calling me rude for making strange noises in front of _him_!"  
"You have a point, but that doesn't justify anything."  
"You two argue a lot, don't you?" They were both silent again at the sound of Falfrea's voice. "Are you really going to be like that? If so, I'll just state my business and get on with my day." More silence. Falfrea sagged "Take your money and I'll go." Falfrea dropped it at their feet and turned around to leave. He stopped after two steps. "Damn, am I really that slow," he said to himself. Falfrea turned back to them. "I need a favour from you two musicians. I require some soundtracks."  
"Why would we help you?" at the mention of music Octavia had regained her senses.  
"Because without you, I may start killing again and I will blame you two and them you both will have blood on your hooves. That's why!" Falfrea was getting angrier. I come here with money and an apology that I haven't even given yet and you two are just standing there! _WHY_!" Falfrea was shouting very loudly now and a small crowd had gathered, "I COME HERE ASKING FOR A _FAVOUR_ AND YOU TWO ARE TOTALLY UNRESPONSIVE! I AM ASKING _YOU_ TO DO SOMETHING FOR _ME_ THAT MIGHT END UP PAYING OUT FOR YOU IN THE END! I DON'T SEE WHY YOU ARE JUST STANDING THERE! I DON'T CARE TOO MUCH IF MOST PONIES SLAM THEIR DOORS IN MY FACE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOTHING TO ME!" Falfrea was screaming now and could be heard almost two rows over, "YOU ARE SOMETHING TO ME… I need you…" his voice suddenly dropped in volume. The broken pony looked up at the two in the doorway "Help me… for Equestria's sake."  
"Wh…what do you need," Vinyl asked tentatively as she was the least affected by Falfrea's breakdown. "I need two sets of music, one angry and one calm, recorded on these devices," Falfrea stood and handed over two medium sized boxes from his stuffed bags. They were both black and had two buttons on the top; One red and one white. "Press the red button and then play the music, press the white button when you are finished. I need this really soon, as soon as possible, and I would like as many records as possible." Falfrea looked up "Please." His head hung again. He turned and looked up for the next house and saw the massive crowd that had gathered behind him. "Oh, so now you are going to pelt me with rock I guess?" Falfrea felt a prick of pain in his head, seconds later he was in agony, screaming filling his cerebrum as Inmate 73 pounded Falfrea's defences. "Arghhhh! No,no,no,no- hahaha- shut up!- you make me laugh- SHUT UP!- your attempts to silence me will be in vain- you will get back to where you came from- I like it here- it's MINE- no, it's ours- you aren't a part of me- oh, but I am. Where would you be without me eh? You would be in that cold, desolate facility on that godforsaken moon." The crowd was dispersing fast with an edge of panic as Falfrea's body writhed with pain. "You should be running, because I'll be chasing- NO!- I'm gonna catch myself one-NO!- and I'm gonna dissect them slowly right there-NOOOO!- and you're going to enjoy it- I NEVER ENJOYED WHAT LITTLE I SAW!- but you saw everything, you just don't remember it. Let me help you." Still images, little snippets of moving pictures, the feel of blood on his face, the taste of it in his mouth, how soft they were when they were broken, ribs twisted and piercing the skin, the faces… The last thing that was given to Falfrea was what Inmate 73 called the best entertainment ever. You put a fuse in a pot of gunpowder and then you embedded into a recently deceased ones chest. Then you stand back and watch as the powder explodes. The salty, metallic spray, the fountain of organs, the tearing of skin and the shattering of bones. Inmate 73 had gone too far, Falfrea saw what had to be done, what had to be contained and only he could do that. He rose to his feet, "Still got motor control." He said to himself. "What was that?" Inmate 73 asked "Just kidding, I intercepted that signal ages ago."  
"Did you intercept this one?" Falfrea focused his entire will on the one single truth he knew. This was his mind, not that monster's. The idea burned brightly, lighting up the dark corners, exposing the things lurking in them. None were pretty, but all were locked up. Falfrea imagined himself a high-security prison and locked them all up inside, creating a mental image and making it happen. He left himself with one, the most powerful of them all. "_You can't touch me," _Inmate 73 had lost control of Falfrea's vocal manipulator and was projecting thoughts onto his conscious brain. "I think you'll find that I can." With those words, a cell began construction around Inmate 73. Thirty meters of imaginary concrete, reinforced with rods of steel, Bars made out of strengthened diamond, no doors, no way out. "See you later matey." This statement was the straw that broke the camel's back, Falfrea was totally drained of energy and promptly emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor and passed out.

Falfrea awoke lying on a bed in in a dark room. It was obviously in a house but whose? The last thing he remembered was vomiting violently before blackness. Falfrea tried to gut up but found that his limbs were bound. He felt a chill on his forehead and realised that it was a load of ice wrapped up in a towel. He shook it off; the cold would increase Inmate 73's capacity and speed in calculations. Falfrea lay in the room for a good half hour, contemplating what he had done to be bound to a bed. When the door opened he hoped that it would be somepony who at least tolerated him. A royal guard walked in, clearly on patrol, most likely looking to avoid Falfrea, saw him laying on the bed in one of the castles many guest rooms and freaked out. "Wait, I need to talk to you!" Falfrea yelled after the fleeing pony, wondering what had occurred in the time he was out. A few minutes later, Luna breezed in. "One heard you were here," she said  
"Luna, you don't know how glad I am to see you. I know where in am now." Falfrea was rather cheery.  
"You are in the guest room closest to the entrance, tied to a bed with some ice on your shoulders. What happened?"  
"To be honest Luna, I don't know. I woke up here. All I remember was that I passed out in the street in a pool of vomit."  
"Lovely," the princess looked him over, "we should probably untie you."  
"No, wait until the pony who tied me up comes to do that. Unless it was you?" Falfrea looked suspicious.  
"Why would I tie you to a bed?"  
"I don't know!" The sound of galloping hooves on cobble reached Falfrea's enhanced ears, " we might not be waiting long, hide in the shadows." Luna went to the back of the room where it was almost pitch back. The hooves were now audible to normal hearing and they had slowed to a walk, but it was the walk of somepony who had to be somewhere tem minutes ago or they were not confident that they were within the boundaries of the law. They stopped in front of the door, as if they were looking to see if they hadn't been followed and to scan the area for guards. The door opened a crack and a shape slipped in. Luna surreptitiously locked the door behind it and after a few seconds, she hit the lights. What they saw was not what they had expected.  
"Vinyl!" they both said in unison (Falfrea said something of the effect, more like "What!").  
"What, whaaahhh Princess Luna." Vinyl Scratch kneeled and was trembling.  
"Vinyl, get up." Falfrea was mildly annoyed now that it was a pony he knew. "I'm just gonna jump straight to the questions. Why am I tied to a bed?"  
"well, you were like… passed out in the road and uhhh… some ponies came along and they uhh… started throwing rocks and stuff at you and then Tavi said that she wouldn't touch you because you had been lying in a pool of vomit so I had to go out and get rid of the other ponies and I had to clean you up by which time it was night and," she inhaled deeply "Then I had to carry you here because I knew that there are tons of guest rooms and this was the only place where you might be accepted or not found at least and as I was moving you, you were mumbling about stuff and one thing I heard consistently was that you wanted to be bound for the safety of the ponies near you and…" Falfrea nodded slowly, "You seem to have a good enough reason to put me here and tie me to a bed so I think that I'm going to let you go." Vinyl let out a sigh of relief,  
"I thought that you might kill me, you tried to before."  
"Good times though, ponies running and screaming before I killed them and stuff."  
"What?"  
"Oh, nothing, just mumbling to myself," Falfrea sat up, this time breaking the rope like it was a blade of grass, "I'll be off then, I have ponies to see." He grabbed his saddlebags which were still there amazingly. "You did a good job, Vinyl. Thanks." He left, walking like a pony who had been tied up for almost a day; very awkwardly indeed.

Nothing else of interest happened in Canterlot, so Falfrea moved on to Ponyville. There were some ponies that he needed to see.

Just another house but not just another pony. Falfrea knocked on the old oak door, totally oblivious the pony that lived there. The house was situated in the middle of Ponyville, on streets that lead directly to the town square. The door opened quite suddenly, as if somepony was standing beside it, waiting for a knock. Bon Bon (I know I called her Sweetie Drops in the previous story but I have decided that she is Bon Bon), looking rather depressed and not at all surprised to see him. "Oh, you're here," she said as if she had somewhere else to be, "She'll be ecstatic." She walked off in silence, as if to say: "I don't care." There was some inaudible talking and then the sound of a lot of furniture being moved around very forcefully. She came cantering down the hallway, the sea-green pony with a pale blue mane. Falfrea remembered her; she was one of the ponies that he remembered distinctly, as he had caused them so much pain. Lyra paused before him and waited for half a second before shrugging in a manner of "What the heck" She threw her front hooves around Falfrea in a moderately awkward hug. Falfrea was stunned, lost for words as Lyra released him from her grip. "Um, what was that for?" Falfrea questioned as he looked puzzlingly at her.  
"You gave me something that I love to do more than what I used to do." Lyra replied  
"Does that sentence even make sense?"  
"Apparently so." Falfrea took a second to think.  
"You love… flying… those helicopters?" He realised what Lyra had been meaning all this time. "You know, I might be able to get my hooves on one."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah, I think I know where they are being kept, in a storage warehouse just outside Canterlot."  
"Could you get me a go in one?"  
"I think that I might be able to get one for you, but there are a few drawbacks."  
"Anything, I'll do anything!"  
"I'll have to reconfigure the engine and remove all armaments. Fuel will be scarce so I may have to totally redesign the engine as to use none. This may or may not affect the performance and I'm not sure if I can make it fly. I'll need to hold onto it to make these adjustments happen so I will get back to you when it's done."  
Lyra thought for a moment, "How long will it take?" she asked.  
"I don't know… a few months at most." Falfrea guessed.  
"That seems OK to me." Lyra looked extremely pleased, more so than when she first appeared.  
"So, I'll get back to you on this, OK?"  
"Yep."  
"See you 'round." Falfrea gave Lyra the money and walked off to the next house. He felt better, he had met somepony who had met Inmate 73 and left alive, with scars to prove it.

The road to Sweet Apple Acres was dusty and hot. The sun had been beating down on the land for the entire day and it wasn't even thinking about going away for the night yet. The path ahead of Falfrea shimmered in the heat, it was almost unbearable. Many a time had this path been trodden, hoof prints deep into the mud and sealed in by the sun. Celestia seemed to have done a good job for being locked up in a cell. The Board had been discontinued by Luna, she had the power now, and so Celestia had been locked up. It was going to happen anyway, a board could not control a princess. Celestia still had to raise the sun, but from behind bars.

Out of the burning haze, a red barn-like building loomed, Falfrea presumed that this was the house of the Apple family. He could feel the coolant system in his body working overtime to stop all the machines failing, resulting in his death. The red pony had not seen too many others out on a day like this and he was probably seen as insane for going outside, but he had work to do. He knew that the coolant would stop him from overheating and if he did reach a critical temperature, then he could rest and let the coolant work its magic. All of this data was displayed on an HUD in the eye piece of the replacement. An almost free moving ball lens protected from dust by a red filter. A backlight in the vacuum of the eyepiece created the light required to see through the lens in very dark areas. The lens itself is connected to a large bundle of wires linking to the brain implant and then neurologically hooked up to the brain. The data on the HUD was something like this. Internal temperature: 38°c, External temperature: 49°c, Altitude: 39 Meters above sea level, Speed: 5Kmph Distance from Object: 156 meters. This took all the data collected by Falfrea's senses and put them up for display with some extra useful things thrown in too. All this data was constantly changing, he was climbing, about a meter for every thirty he walked, and his speed was fluctuating between 5 and 6 KMPH. The external temperature was also rising at quite an alarming rate; since Falfrea last looked at it, the temperature had increased by 3°c. A warning light came on saying that the coolant couldn't keep up with the temperature and that shelter should be found quickly. The machine was at maximum output but it was failing to keep the internal temperature down, the house was only fifty meters away though and he should be able to take shelter in there. Falfrea looked over his shoulder worriedly, "_Can he take it?"_ he thought to himself before realising how stupid that sounded. _"He's in a suit, he'll be fine." _Falfrea diverted his eyes from the lumbering machine that followed him. It was a small redesign on one of the original robots brought down with him; it was about four meters tall and humanoid. The prototype seemed to do what Falfrea wanted it to. The inside had been hollowed out so that it could hold a driver that controlled the movements from a pressurised cabin with a reinforced glass view pod. It was basically a round pod with the front glass containing a pony controlling the motion. A pair of arms sprouted from three quarters of the way up and legs from the bottom. It was designed to go out on the surface of the moon when Falfrea and a team went up to retrieve the technology left up in the CDFRDT. He already had the perfect team in mind. But as he was pondering this he came up to the door. "That thought will just have to wait," he said as he raised his hoof to knock.

The red door opened before he could touch it and in its place stood a subtly hostile Applejack. "Ah, you saw me coming," Falfrea said cheerily.  
"What are y'all doin' 'ere?" She motioned to both Falfrea and the machine behind him.  
"We are here to give you a few things…" Falfrea returned mysteriously.  
"Well, get on with it then, ah ain't got all day."  
"First things first, your money," Falfrea threw 4 bags of coins on the floor, "and I thought that we might just skip the apology and return what I took from you." He walked back to the suit and yelled at it, saying "WE HAVEN'T GOT LONG, GET DOWN HERE!" There was a hiss and soon after a thud and then, a few seconds later, another thud. Falfrea rushed out of sight to the left, by the tall robot. "You'll be fine, you'll be fine." He repeated a few times before dragging a pony of similar colouration to the door. Applejack gasped. "He passed out from the combination of dehydration and the heat." Applejack ran over to her brother and turned him over. A plain black strip of cloth covered the eye that had been destroyed. She went to remove it but Falfrea stopped her, "The nanomites work better in darkness, they tend to overheat easily. It's not pretty either." Applejack removed her hoof from her brother's face and started to pull him inside. "Let me help you," Falfrea said before putting the edge of his wing under Big Macintosh and lifting. He took the limp pony into the biggest room and dumped him onto the floor. "He needs to rest until his eye is fixed, that's what the nanomites are doing, so no work too strenuous. The eye will have to be checked on every day until it is totally reconstructed. He will be blind in it for a few days to a couple of week after that but it will operate. It is done if there are no nanomites shrouding it." Falfrea was very concerned for the heath of Big Mac which was instrumental in changing Applejack's opinion about him. She used to think that he cared for nopony, not even himself, but he had shown her different. He had demonstrated that he was not a bad pony, just one who was different and one who needed psychiatrist.

Falfrea went to all the cities and towns in Equestria, handing out money and apologies left, right and centre before returning to Ponyville. The streets were empty as usual but there was one thing that caught his eye. A deserted stall, like one you would see in a market, with a very faded sign on the top. "Crimson Metal Works".


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

The forest was dark and cold. Fog swirled around the great trees creating shadows and moving shapes. Somewhere in the distance a timberwolf howled, a spine-chilling noise, enough to set anypony on edge. Falfrea was stood in the middle of a ring of trees, not constricting but menacing. Slowly, he took a step forward. The wind whistled through the leaves, as if displeased, as he wandered around. Totally lost, the darkness was consuming and if he tried to go back, the path had mysteriously changed. Falfrea had mapped most of the Everfree forest but this part was totally new to him. However, there was a strange feeling of deja-vu, as if he had been here before. He wandered for another few minutes before the fog turned a sickly shade of red. The screams began, bloodcurdling scrams of pain and despair, all lost in the woods. There came a clunk behind Falfrea and when he turned the screams became the least of his worries. It all came back to him then, why he was here and what he was going to do. "No, not today, not here!" Falfrea was panicking under the gaze of the machine that stood before him. "You have no choice, I am in control here." There was no mouthpiece, only a speaker from which sound emanated. "I will not do it!" Falfrea was scared.  
"You cannot resist. It will result in pain."  
"NO!"  
"Follow me." Falfrea was on the verge of tears. He didn't want to go. "You will follow me or I will drag you." The metal pony seemed impatient. Falfrea took a few steps towards it and decided.  
"I will entertain you." He said.  
"Good, now follow me."

The metal pony led Falfrea through twist and turns, ups and downs, the path was lost and the ground, uneven. As they walked, Falfrea looked at his front two legs, confirming his suspicions; both were organic, no metal attachments. He tried to flex his wings, Nothing happened because he had no wings. He blinked, one eye then the other, both were normal.

They arrived at the clearing after an incalculable amount of time, an empty space that was used for one sole purpose. The metal pony pulled what looked like a clipboard from its back and held it so it could be viewed. Ten names were listed in alphabetical order. Falfrea steeled himself for what he was about to do, ten was a lot, and finally took his stance. The metal pony then pulled the second item from its back, a revolver. "Six bullets. Ten names. This should be interesting." The metal pony stated this cold fact with no emotion, only curiosity. It took the clipboard again and started reading the names. One by one, as if summoned by a greater force, the fog began to collect and condense in to the forms of ponies, ponies that had been killed in the war Falfrea had started.

The metal pony tossed the revolver to Falfrea and he caught it. It had been modified slightly so that Falfrea could fire it; a lever that stuck out to the right was attached to the trigger, one pulled back, the gun would fire. As more of the fog turned into ponies Falfrea checked the chamber to see that it was fully loaded. Six bullets. Ten ponies. He pulled the hammer back. "Let's do this."

The ponies stood there, in a line, their faces blank. When Falfrea stood in front of them though, they turned to a mixture of fear and pleading. He took aim at the first one. Right between the eyes… The gun jumped back as the bullet was ejected out of the barrel. It bore down on its target, dead centre, and impacted right where it should have. The blood spattered across the trees and plants behind and the pony's limp body fell, the front of its face torn and twisted. Falfrea moved on. The other nine ponies seemed unfazed by what had just happened and five more went the same way. Bang! Splat.

Now Falfrea had to be creative, he had no bullets. The next pony looked even more scared by what was about to happen. She appeared younger that the rest of them but that was of no meaning to Falfrea. He walked right up to her and hit her repeatedly over her head. Soon, there wasn't much left other than shards of skull and mangled brain. Blood flowed freely until her body dissipated back into the fog. Tears fell from Falfrea's eyes in an almost constant torrent as he hacked and crushed his way through the remaining ponies. When the tenth pony had been killed, his sobs were clearly audible. The dominant sound was of splats, squelches and cracks. Falfrea looked at his front two hooves; they were both blood soaked and painful. "Are you happy now?" he choked through the sobs. "Yes I am. Now it's your turn." The metal pony pulled another revolver from seemingly nowhere and emptied it into Falfrea. He could feel every bullet impact and pierce his skin, tearing a burning hole in his chest. As he lay on the floor gasping for breath he realised something. Five bullets. There was one more shot to be taken. The metal pony loomed into Falfrea's view and pulled the gun to his eye. "See you later."

Falfrea awoke with a bang echoing throughout his head. The bed he had been lying on was destroyed; sheets had been propelled across the room, the mattress was shredded and parts of the bedstead had been splintered but the chains had held. He was grateful for that. Falfrea got the key from the table next to his bed and proceeded to unlock the shackles holding him in place. When Falfrea was finally out of bed, he checked the clock. 2:13 am. "It's too early." He said to himself before getting the leftovers from last night's evening meal and eating them with some fresh grass and washed it down with a glass of water. He then checked his calendar too see what he was doing today. "Ah, so today is the day. I'll get a bit more sleep and a bit more food and then warm up until it is light enough to run my tests." Talking to himself again. So, Falfrea climbed back into bed and slept peacefully.

Rainbow Dash was lying on a cloud, wondering what to do with herself. Twilight was in Canterlot with Luna, Rarity was making a very special order of dresses for tomorrow, Applejack was visiting her cousins in Appleoosa, Pinkie Pie was babysitting for the Cakes again and Fluttershy was… Rainbow Dash remembered she had a meeting with Fluttershy. She checked the time, she was ten minutes late. Rainbow Dash went to take off but something caught her eye, something shining in the Everfree forest. It wasn't there for long; very soon after she had spotted it, the object began to skyrocket, straight up into the cool sky. Rainbow Dash assumed that the thing was Falfrea and she wanted to know where he was going, she was worried that he was going to kill some more ponies. She waited to see if she could follow him but to no avail, he was gone. She was about to leave for Fluttershy's when something else grabbed her attention. What went up had to come down. Falfrea was falling at an incredible rate; he had just burst through a cloud and the vapour was trailing behind him. As Rainbow Dash watched, he flipped, tucked his wings in and fell. She realised what was about to happen; he would hit the ground and he would splat.

Falfrea watched the ground as it got closer and closer. He calculated that he had about ten to fifteen seconds of free fall before he hit the ground. If Falfrea opened his wings, they would get ripped out of his sides and he didn't want that to happen. Initiate e_mergency mode. Solidify skull. _He thought and he felt nanomites flow into his skull and create a lattice to increase its strength. Seven seconds. Brace for impact. Five seconds… Four seconds… three seconds… two seconds… one second.

Rainbow Dash flew straight into the Everfree forest, not caring about how the atmosphere changed significantly, the air seemed somehow colder and the wind, stronger. She pulled up the memory of Falfrea falling and worked out that he must be on the right hand side of the game trail that led to the old fort. He wasn't hard to find. His broken, twisted body lay against a large tree that he seemed to have fallen through; snapped branches and leaves littered the floor and the trunk had been cut into by one of his wings, which now lay embedded in the wood. A pool of silvery, red liquid was spreading around the pony's limp body. Bones jutted out of Falfrea's skin at awkward angles and twigs were entrenched into his flesh; he did not look like a pony anymore. Rainbow Dash hovered over him and got a good look at the damage. He wasn't breathing.

The cyan Pegasus poked the earth pony lying on the floor with a stick and after a few attempts with no reply she landed near him. "What am I going to do?" she asked herself. She considered her options; she could just leave him here, she could go and get help or she could run off screaming. She chose the second option and started off to find somepony but stopped when she heard a noise. A faint noise. A ragged noise. The sound of breathing. She flew over him once again and sure enough, what was left of his chest was rising and falling. It was shallow and fast but at least he was breathing. Falfrea's eye opened and his mechanical one flickered into life. He groaned. "You're awake!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise. "Yes, I'm awake, now wait over there," he pointed to a nearby tree, "I need to do an analysis." The Pegasus went to where Falfrea pointed and waited for a short time. "Alright, Rainbow Dash, I'm gonna need your help." Falfrea said.  
"With what?" Rainbow dash asked.  
"First, getting me back to my house and second…" Falfrea trailed off "We need to get there now." There were a series of loud cracks and a muted scream as Falfrea reset his spine and another few pops and screeches as the bones in his let were put straight. Falfrea tried to stand but he couldn't, he had lost too many nanomites in his blood. Rainbow Dash went over to help and together they started on their way to Falfrea's shack.

They trudged through the forest for a good half hour before coming to the first of Falfrea's defence system. A small panel with a machine gun on top was standing on the thinly worn track to the house. Falfrea put his hoof to the panel and the gun clicked. "Right, the defences are now offline." He said to Rainbow Dash who was now carrying him more than he was walking. "Not far now." They continued on until they came to a clearing. In the centre stood what looked like a lodge with one floor and a wood store. The front door was a misshapen panel of wood that almost fit the doorframe but not quite. A short chimney stood out of the slanted roof and a barrel containing water was standing at a corner. "Right," Falfrea said, "in there." he staggered to the door and burst through it, almost falling over. He went to the big wooden table in the middle of the one big space the door opened into and leant on it. The red pony then proceeded to lie down on it. "I'm going to need replacements and I can't do that myself. I'll have to ask her to do it but I don't know if she has the guts. Do I have another choice?" Falfrea questioned himself as Rainbow Dash entered the house calmly. "Rainbow Dash, get over here," Falfrea almost shouted at her, "we, meaning you, needs to do the second thing I was talking about."  
"What do I need to do?" She asked as she came closer to the table.  
"You need to go over to that metal cabinet and grab," Falfrea thought for a moment, "A pair of bolt cutters, a hammer and see if you can find a knife." Rainbow Dash went out of sight and came back with the three things, the bolt cutters, the hammer and a wicked looking chef's knife. "What do you want me to do with these?" the Pegasus asked. Falfrea was in the process of manoeuvring himself onto his back, when he had finished, he looked her dead in the eyes. "I need you to cut down here," he said, drawing an invisible line down the centre of his torso, "And across here and here." He said motioning to the top and bottom of his chest and belly. Rainbow Dash was shocked and distraught "Why would I want to do that?" She asked, eyes wide in fear.  
"Because if you don't, I will die."


End file.
